Poems & Thoughts
by Matthew Cook
Dear Matthew,
Thank you for the opportunity to share your poetry with our readership.
You are very welcome. It’s my pleasure and honor.
Do you write for an intended audience?
No.
What’s the best reaction of your work you’ve experienced so far?
“I wish I could have written this.” —Unattributed
Being a poet means…
A small, quiet life is a splendid thing.
Enormous quantities of dedication.
Revision is oxygen and water.
Compassion... to endure with.
Embracing the difference between solitude and alone.
Knowing the difference between honesty and truth.
Loving language, syntax, grammar, punctuation and rhetoric unconditionally.
Allowing language to do its work.
Reading a lot.
Getting out of one’s writing camp frequently and getting uncomfortable often and readily.
Logging one’s hours alone in a chair, never being satisfied you have mastered your craft.
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The Eclipse
Only a glimmer left: a few pills briefly covering the tongue, an escape hatch from an unfinished chapter-- only totality or sadness is cathartic, the annular as disappointing as geometry or empty darkness. The Mayans basically kept it to themselves, the Aztecs detecting only whispers about limits and calendars during each sacrifice. One celestial door closes, to unexplored space. The big striptease is easy in zero-gravity, where the cloaking volunteers to float away, exposing a spectacular body. In other galaxies, our sun’s not a celebrity, but here, our flashbulbs crackle like torn-open envelopes of discount stars, the notes within too culture-coded to read aloud. From this point on, people will call many things accidents. This will not be one of them. |
* * *
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Lifeguard
A couple of Septembers, a couple, a wedding band, and a water wing catch in the filter, dazzled by chemicals. The inflatable tube mouths a big vowel many refuse to pronounce. Meanwhile, my high-hedged residential romance has the attendance of air freshener. High and tiled, the cavern walls glaze, air booming with empty. They refuse to heat the fall to a more inviting temperature. Dead leaves line the bottom with their rotting, thrushes peck the concrete deck for non-existent sustenance, while an entire population rubs its face in coliseum. A few of the smart ones procure parkas and travel north. Surprise drowns none of them, but their leader may confuse a virgin with aversion in choosing where to stop. The ducks have mostly abandoned the pool or deflated, and the live ones remain a wary distance away. My rescue whistle has frozen to my lips. |
* * *
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American Pastoral
The world isn’t scored, so you can’t bite it in half to swallow or chew, stretching skin over packed cheeks, threatening to break your cranium. Morning bucks the hydrangeas, hummingbirds ablaze with fancy, and the way purple unfolds into airspace, and roses are unlikely shades of open, petals in the evolution of patience. Little use, at the edge of this spell, garnering ingredients, rambling the countryside’s contours, humming the immortal waiting game in this outdoor kitchen, whipping up something delectable--hear knack performing, glimpse shimmering air, seductive as hell, cry the planet’s next rotation in the eyes of a wandering dragonfly one helium afternoon, neurons an allegro fire ablaze against the fenland sky, and awash in all this, a tour of the low-cost, modern American house, the average and expensive days within the within. Supposedly, great ideas await outing in every budget. |
* * *
What are the most exciting and most exhausting angles of being a poet?
The most exciting is learning to become to less angular, the most exhausting is building endurance.
What’s the one rule you were taught but break constantly in your writing?
Luckily, I wasn’t taught there is a number one rule. I think in having so many great, varied teachers, I simply learned, and learned that learning never ends.
Do you have a writing routine or do you write anytime, anywhere as long as you have pen and paper?
Writing is a daily practice. I don’t have a routine. How much writing occurs in a day is often abridged by work, etc. However, I will confess I’ve written poems on the back of sandwich receipts. So, I suppose both apply.
Who are your favorite writers, painters, musicians?
Favorite writers: (in random order) Rae Armantrout, D.A. Powell, James Tate, James Baldwin, James Galvin, Rita Dove, Frank O’Hara, my dad, Brenda Hillman, Eduardo C. Corral, Jack Spicer, Rachel McKibbens, Mark Levine, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Li-Young Lee, Dorianne Laux, Robert Hass, Joy Harjo, Lydia Davis, Sharon Olds, Lucille Clifton, John Steinbeck, Emily Dickinson, Stevie Edwards, and Chase Twichell.
Favorite painters: (in random order) Mark Rothko, my mom, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Ryman, Frank Stella, Agnes Martin, and the folks who paint/design Alice James Books covers, I love their book covers, but I love their books more.
Favorite musicians: Meshell Ndgeocello, Prince, Madonna, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Joss Stone, Lucinda Williams, Jill Scott, Jamiroquai, 2Cellos, Sam Cooke, Lizz Wright, Blackbird Blackbird, Patsy Cline, Etta James, Angie Stone and Amel Larrieux.
How would you like your work to be perceived and reviewed?
I would simply like my work to be read and considered. Published widely would be a luxury. The rest is frosting.
According to you, what does the world need more of?
Kindness, reciprocity, slowing down, compassion, empathy, sympathy, mental health awareness, domestic violence awareness, providing resources and to aid those directly and indirectly effected by domestic violence (most male victims are less likely to report it based on the stigma surrounding it), visible male feminists, tolerance, acceptance, authenticity, humility, people realizing our planet is really upset we are destroying it and more publishers and presses willing to take the risk of publishing LGTIQ authors and their work.
The most exciting is learning to become to less angular, the most exhausting is building endurance.
What’s the one rule you were taught but break constantly in your writing?
Luckily, I wasn’t taught there is a number one rule. I think in having so many great, varied teachers, I simply learned, and learned that learning never ends.
Do you have a writing routine or do you write anytime, anywhere as long as you have pen and paper?
Writing is a daily practice. I don’t have a routine. How much writing occurs in a day is often abridged by work, etc. However, I will confess I’ve written poems on the back of sandwich receipts. So, I suppose both apply.
Who are your favorite writers, painters, musicians?
Favorite writers: (in random order) Rae Armantrout, D.A. Powell, James Tate, James Baldwin, James Galvin, Rita Dove, Frank O’Hara, my dad, Brenda Hillman, Eduardo C. Corral, Jack Spicer, Rachel McKibbens, Mark Levine, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Li-Young Lee, Dorianne Laux, Robert Hass, Joy Harjo, Lydia Davis, Sharon Olds, Lucille Clifton, John Steinbeck, Emily Dickinson, Stevie Edwards, and Chase Twichell.
Favorite painters: (in random order) Mark Rothko, my mom, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Ryman, Frank Stella, Agnes Martin, and the folks who paint/design Alice James Books covers, I love their book covers, but I love their books more.
Favorite musicians: Meshell Ndgeocello, Prince, Madonna, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Joss Stone, Lucinda Williams, Jill Scott, Jamiroquai, 2Cellos, Sam Cooke, Lizz Wright, Blackbird Blackbird, Patsy Cline, Etta James, Angie Stone and Amel Larrieux.
How would you like your work to be perceived and reviewed?
I would simply like my work to be read and considered. Published widely would be a luxury. The rest is frosting.
According to you, what does the world need more of?
Kindness, reciprocity, slowing down, compassion, empathy, sympathy, mental health awareness, domestic violence awareness, providing resources and to aid those directly and indirectly effected by domestic violence (most male victims are less likely to report it based on the stigma surrounding it), visible male feminists, tolerance, acceptance, authenticity, humility, people realizing our planet is really upset we are destroying it and more publishers and presses willing to take the risk of publishing LGTIQ authors and their work.
